On 21 – 22 October, the 29th Session of the Baltic Assembly (BA) will be held in the Saeima of the Republic of Latvia. During the Session, parliamentarians will discuss joint health-care projects and challenges to public safety. Furthermore, as part of the Session the BA prizes for literature, the arts, and science, as well as the BA medals for contributions in strengthening the unity of the Baltic States, will be awarded.

The proceedings of the Session will take place in all buildings of the Saeima; on 22 October Mrs. Ērika Zommere, President of the Baltic Assembly, H.E. Mr. Gundars Daudze, Speaker of the Saeima, H.E. Mrs. Ene Ergma, President of the Estonian parliament, and H.E. Mrs. Irena Degutienė, Speaker of the Lithuanian parliament, will address the audience at the opening of the Session, which will be held in the Plenary Chamber.

Mrs. Ērika Zommere explains that „the priorities of the Baltic Assembly during 2010 included the stabilisation of economies, joint health-care projects, and public safety”. She emphasises that „these goals can be achieved by pooling resources and by implementing policies which are coordinated among all three Baltic States”.

„During this Session, parliamentarians, representatives of governments, and experts will pay particular attention to opportunities of all three Baltic States to develop joint health-care projects, including joint procurement of medicines and creation of specialised medical centres in the Baltic region, which would be too expensive for each country individually,” explains the BA President. 

The parliamentarians will also talk about challenges in the sphere of security and living standards which are faced by societies in the 21st century. This subject will be addressed by Mr. Roberts Ķīlis, Chairman of the Strategic Analysis Commission under the auspices of the President of the Republic of Latvia, and Marju Lauristin, professor at the University of Tartu. Mr. Edward Lucas, The Economist‘s editor who has specialised in Central and Eastern Europe, will also take part in the discussion.

It is a long-standing tradition to hold a ceremony of awarding the BA prizes to Baltic researchers, writers and artists as part of the Session. This year the BA Prize for Science will be awarded to Mr. Jānis Stradiņš. The BA Prize for Literature will be awarded to Estonian poetess and writer Ene Mihkelson, and Lithuanian artist and sculptor Antanas Žukauskas will receive the BA Prize in the Arts.

Next Friday the 16th Baltic Council will convene in the Saeima building. The BA President, as well as Ministers for Foreign Affairs of the Baltic States, will address the audience by touching upon issues such as strengthening political and economic cooperation.

The Baltic Assembly is an interparliamentary cooperation organisation of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania established for coordinating the Baltic States' cooperation on the parliamentary level, discussing issues and projects of mutual interest and expressing a common position on political, economic, social and cultural issues on the EU and international level. The Baltic Assembly consists of national delegations – 12 to 20 members from each country’s parliament. 

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